Oslo's $9.3 bln pension fund to pull out from oil, gas firms

The Norwegian capital's public pension fund will divest its holdings of companies producing oil and gas to give it a greener profile, the newly elected centre-left city council said on Monday.Reuters | October 20, 2015, 06:55 IST

OSLO: The Norwegian capital's public pension fund will divest its holdings of companies producing oil and gas to give it a greener profile, the newly elected centre-left city council said on Monday.

Oslo Pensjonsforsikring had already began divesting from coal under the outgoing right-wing council, but will now sell all stakes in oil and gas firms, it said.

The fund's assets amounted to 75 billion crowns ($9.25 billion) at the end of 2014.

A spokesman for the Oslo wing of the Green Party, a city council coalition partner, said it was too early to estimate the value of shares that will be sold.

The Labour Party and the Socialist Left are also part of the coalition.

Norway is western Europe's top oil producer and Europe's second largest supplier of natural gas, generating about one fifth of its economic output from petroleum.

The country's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest with assets of $861 billion, is banned from investing in coal producing firms but holds large stakes in global oil and gas producers. ($1 = 8.1071 Norwegian crowns)